On Monday, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday blamed movies for inspiring the twisted beliefs of Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger:
How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like “Neighbors” and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of “sex and fun and pleasure”? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, “It’s not fair”?
A little harsh, in my opinion. I don't think any of us are in a position to say exactly what influence, if any, movies had over Rodger. And being involved in the type of movie Hornaday criticizes doesn't mean that one wouldn't abhor what has happened.
In explicitly mentioning "Neighbors", Hornaday attracted the ire of actor Seth Rogen, who was in the movie. On Twitter, he wrote:
This attracted the attention of the brilliant minds over at NewsBusters, who
convicted him of hypocrisy based on a tweet sent out in 2012:
Back there in the mists of time - aka the 2012 presidential campaign - Mr. Rogen himself was out there tweeting an Ann Hornaday-style message about: Mitt Romney. Specifically, it went like this: “that awkward moment you realize Mitt Romney’s Slogan “Keep America American” was the same slogan used by the KKK in 1922…”
Yes, that’s right, Seth Rogen, now stung by a leftist film critic’s rant that his films are racist, sexist and inspiring of a murderous rampage finds the charge “horribly insulting and misinformed.” Yet Rogen himself was out there in 2012 tweeting away a comparison of Mitt Romney to the racist, murderous Ku Klux Klan.
The article is titled "Seth Rogen and the Liberal Media's Night of the Long Knives". First of all, I find it hypocritical of NewsBusters to denounce KKK comparisons while making Nazi comparisons.
Secondly, and most importantly, NewsBusters got their facts wrong. Here's the tweet about Romney and the KKK allegedly sent out by Rogen:
Rogen did not send the tweet. It was from a parody account. The entire article is based on something that didn't happen.
Rogen didn't let NewsBusters off the hook for their hilariously poor mistake. He tweeted:
As of the posting of this diary, a correction has not been issued. It may come, but then again, it may not.
10:30 PM PT: A correction and an apology has been posted:
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Correction appended. Seth Rogen did not send the tweet mentioned below.)
[...]
CORRECTION: Seth Rogen has “parody” twitter accounts. And he’s upset with me because I mistakenly quoted one of them as real. He has called me an “idiot.” The source where I found this originally - and duly and deliberately linked - was the lefty MoveOn. MoveOn was apparently fooled by the “Real Seth” parody, which in turn fooled me, although in fact the parody was well out there. MoveOn having long ago become a parody I was quite happy to link it. So the notion that a Hollywood liberal would simply parrot this Romney/Klan story was all too easy to believe. But in fact, it was a parody. Our apologies for the error.
10:31 PM PT: But considering that the entire article is based on a falsehood, it would make sense to disown, disregard and dismiss the whole thing.
Also, I recommend checking out the comments of the article. They really take Jeffrey Lord (the author) to task.